Apple’s Culture of Secrecy

If I had stock in Apple, I'd be selling it now. I've worked as an ER nurse for 15 years, and I know what sick looks like. Steve Jobs is ill: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/07/26/business/26noce.... If it's not cacer, it's something else, and it's bad. You don't loose that much weight by doing pilates. His zygomatic arch and clavicles are very pronounced. And, if you look at where his pectorals were 5 years ago as opposed to where they are now, he's lost a lot of muscle mass. Men shouldn't have droopy boobs.

I hate to say it, but in my experience people who try to beat cancers with special diets usually die. Granted, chemo, radiation and surgery are terrible, and if someone doesn't want to pursue that, I can certainly respect that decision. But, to try and beat cancer with a diet as opposed to the best medical science is madness in my opinion. If you want to beat cancer, go to the experts.

I certainly respect Steve's decision to not talk about his health publicly. But, I have a sneaky suspicion that if he was honest about his health, Apple's stock would tank hard.

> Mr. Jobs called me. “This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.”

I never get tired of personal accounts of dealing with Steve Jobs. Every story I know has a few expletives and some awkward parts that only someone like SJ could pull off.

There are a few people I will be sad to see leave this planet, folks like Hugh Hefner and Richard Branson, visionaries. Jobs is one of those people.

I'm not a fanboy, but I respect his ruthless passion.

The title might be more aptly written, "It's official -- Steve Jobs calls a Times reporter and says that he does not have cancer."

Steve Jobs might have cancer again, and all people care about is Apple's stock price?

I know its logical. I know its rational. I know its the hackeresque response to consider privacy vs. corporate governance. But please, try to have some respect, try to have some compassion.

an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor is not the kind of pancreatic cancer that kills you in six months. The fast killers are exocrine: the cells that produce enzymes that digest protein. As you can imagine, since soft tissues contain a lot of proteins, having too much of those enzymes is not so good.

This could have been any of a number of functional or nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors, but the prognosis really would be quite a bit better.

As I said in another comment, you can still have some pretty unpleasant digestive issues, simply because it's a rather delicate digestive organ. There's a common saying in surgery: eat when you can, sleep when you can, and don't touch the pancreas. He could have a ductal obstruction, the pancreas could have necrosed. All his beta cells may have failed, causing him to become a rather old new-onset Type I diabetic (no, it's not the normal presentation of DM I, but PETs aren't common.) He could have had a completely unrelated pneumonia. I've heard some say he's still very actively managing his diet. If a doctor or nutritionist or dietitian isn't cut in on that diet, then it's probably riskier. Last I checked, this guy isn't risk averse.

He could have had any number of viral illnesses that would have taken a toll on anyone, it could have been a nasty case of mononucleosis, and, given his potentially partially compromised digestive system, the toll would be especially heavy on him.

On the nasty end, maybe on a recent foreign trip he got cholera or tuberculosis. Who knows. The differential is to wide to narrow it down, but the pancreatic cancer thing is getting old. A PET =! pancreatic cancer.

Based on the report, I'd go with a pneumonia, or some other infectious process that would have a substantial exogenous metabolic component, or a nasty GI bug, which would affect absorption of nutrients. Neither of which is lethal if treated, and the treatments are IV antibiotics, usually a fairly certain cure.

Good read all the way through.

A little philosophy, a little business, and a little personal.

The article is "Registration required". Ironic.